Installing Oracle Application Server 10g Oracle Application Server Tips by Burleson Consulting

At this point you are ready to begin installing the Oracle Application Server 10g.  In reality, there are some other planning steps that should be accomplished first such as determining how the 10g system is to be deployed and on which set of machines. Where is the infrastructure installed? How many mid-tier instances are required, etc. These issues are discussed in later chapters and there are numerous OTN articles, white papers, and product guides available on otn.oracle.com.

This section will take you step by step through the installation process, starting with the installation of the Infrastructure and then a mid tier that contains Portal and Oracle Forms.  Like the Oracle database, the Application Server 10g uses the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) which will walk you through the process in installation.  The OUI also supports silent and non-interactive installations.   

If you have been making changes to operating system files and have not rebooted, do so now to ensure all changes are in effect.  Log onto the server as the oracle user.  Change directory to the /home/oracle/stage/Disk1 directory (or to the directory you extracted the installation files). 

Environmental Variables

Verify that at least the TMP environmental variable is set.

[oracle@appsvr Disk1]$ env |grep TMP
TMPDIR=/tmp
TMP=/tmp

The following environmental variables will not be present unless you have installed an Oracle product on your server before.

Verify that no ORACLE environmental variables are set such as ORACLE_HOME or ORACLE_SID.  You should not try to preset the ORACLE_HOME variable as it is unset by the installer. 

[oracle@appsvr Disk1]$ env |grep -i oracle
USER=oracle
MAIL=/var/spool/mail/oracle
LOGNAME=oracle
HOME=/home/oracle
PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/X11R6/bin
OLDPWD=/home/oracle

Ensure that the LD_LIBRARY_PATH, CLASSPATH environmental variables are not set and that there are no previous ORACLE_HOME variables in the PATH.

[oracle@appsvr Disk1]$ env | grep -i path
PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/X11R6/bin

Next ensure that TNS_ADMIN, ORA_NLS33 or LD_BIND_NOW environmental variables are not set.

[oracle@appsvr Disk1]$ env | grep -i tns
[oracle@appsvr Disk1]$ env | grep -i nls33
[oracle@appsvr Disk1]$ env | grep -i bind
[oracle@appsvr Disk1]$

The final environmental variable to set is DISPLAY.  The Oracle Universal Installer is a Java-based graphical program, which requires that Xwindows is available.  To tell Java where to display the graphics you use the DISPLAY variable.  If the Display variable is not properly set, the installer will fail on startup. 

If you are performing a local install set DISPLAY to the server.

[oracle@appsvr Disk1]$ DISPLAY=appsvr.proxitec.com:0.0; export DISPLAY

If you are executing an install from another server point the DISPLAY variable to the host you are on.

[oracle@appsvr Disk1]$ DISPLAY=192.168.1.109:0.0; export DISPLAY

Ensure that you run xhost + to allow you host to accept the X-Windows data from the remote server.  If you prefer, the DISPLAY variable can be set in the .bash_profile in the user home directory.

To verify that the DISPLAY variable is properly set run the command below.

[oracle@appsvr Disk1]$ xclock

You should see a graphic clock displaying the current server time on either the local system or the remote system depending on how you set the DISPLAY variable.

Installing the Infrastructure

      Oracle Application Server 10g uses the familiar Oracle Universal Installer (OUI).  To start OUI, change to the Disk1 directory and execute the runInstaller command.

[oracle@appsvr Disk1]$ ./runInstaller

 

If you are installing from a cdrom then execute the runInstaller command using the fully qualified name.  IMPORTANT: Do not start OUI from the /mnt/cdrom directory or you may not be able to unmount the cdrom to change disks.  In this case start OUI from another directory.

[oracle@appsvr oracle]$ /mnt/cdrom/runInstaller

The first action OUI takes is to verify the operating system prerequisites.

Starting Oracle Universal Installer ...

Checking requirements...

Checking operating system version: must be redhat-2.1, UnitedLinux-1.0 or redhat-3                                 Passed

All requirements met.

Checking if CPU speed is above 450 MHz.

Actual 1532 MHz    Passed

Checking for Kernel version 2.4.9-e.25     Passed

Checking for glibc version glibc-2.2.4-32     Passed

Checking operating system packages: gcc-2.96,pdksh-5.2.14,openmotif-2.1.30,sysstat-4.0.1,compat-glibc-6.2-2.1.3.2,libstdc++-2.96    Passed

Checking swap space: must be greater than 1536 MB.

Actual 1709MB    Passed

Preparing to launch Oracle Universal Installer from /tmp/OraInstall2003-12-29_08-46-19PM. Please wait ...

If any of the prerequisites fail, OUI prints an error message and ask if you want to continue with the install.  Once past the OS checks, the installer presents the Welcome page, as shown in Figure 3-3.

Figure 3:Welcome Page of the Oracle Universal Installer

If this is the first installation on this server using OUI, clicking Next will bring you to the Inventory Directory screen.  OUI tracks the products (and what components) are installed on a server in an inventory directory normally called oraInventory.  Enter the fully qualified directory name for the inventory directory.  For example:

/opt/oracle/oraInventory

Next enter the UNIX Group Name that will own the installation.  Earlier, I defined that group name as oinstall.  Clicking Next will bring up a dialog box telling you to run the ?/oraInventory/orainstRoot.sh scripts as root.  This script sets the UNIX permissions on the oraInventory directory.  Open a new terminal and change to root and run the script.

su ? root
cd ?/oraInventory (your oraInventory location)
./orainstRoot.sh

Once the script has completed, return to the dialog box and select Continue.  This will bring you to the File Locations screen as shown in Figure 3-4.

Figure 4:File Locations Screen of the Oracle Universal Installer

The Source section specifies where the installer finds the product files.  It is already set and there is no need to edit it.  The Destination section defines two items.  The Name is a name used by OUI to identify this installation.  It is not the instance name.  I chose to name this install orcl_infra.  The Path is the ORACLE_HOME for this installation.  In Figure 3-4, I am installing the infrastructure instance into /u01/oracle/infra904.  Ensure that the Path location has enough disk space to contain the product files.  If the directory does not exist, OUI will create it.  If you create it before the starting OUI, ensure that the oracle user creates it or OUI will not be able to use it.  Select Next to continue to the Products screen as shown in Figure 3-5.

Figure 5:Products Screen of the Oracle Universal Installer

Because we are going to install the BI and Forms installation we will need to fist install the Infrastructure.  All Application Server 10g installations except the J2EE and Web Cache require access to an Infrastructure instance.  Also the Application Server 10g Metadata Repository database can be installed in an existing Oracle9i database is needed.  To install the Metadata Repository into an existing database, refer to the installation documentation.  Since we must install the Infrastructure instance first, select OracleAS Infrastructure 10g and click Next to proceed to the Installation Type screen, Figure 3-6.

Figure 6:Installation Type Screen of the Oracle Universal Installer

This screen provides three options, to install Identity Management, the Metadata Repository or to install both.  Normally you will install both.  Some high availability options allow you to install just the Identity Management and tie it to another Metadata Repository.  For additional information refer to chapter 9.  Select Identity Management and OracleAS Metadata Repository and click Next. 

This screen details the steps that OUI will take to execute the install.  You can read through this information, there is no need to write it down as the OUI will walk you through each step. 

Select Next to proceed to the Pre-Install Requirements screen.  You must be able to log on as root to complete the installation.  Later there is another script that must be executed as root.  Click the checkbox and select Next.

      You are now at the Configuration Options screen as shown in Figure 3-7.

Figure 7:Configuration Options Screen of the Oracle Universal Installer

All of the grayed out components are required and you cannot select or deselect them.  The other components can be added or dropped as required for your installation.  Since this example installation will include Portal we want to maintain the default selection.  If your application is not going to use OID or Single Sign-on you can deselect all of the non-grayed out options.  If you are not sure, install the default selections.  Select Next to continue to the Oracle Internet Directory Name Space screen, shown in Figure 3-8.

Figure 8:Oracle Internet Directory Name Space Screen of the Oracle Universal

 

This is an excerpt from "Oracle 10g Application Server Administration Handbook" by Don Burleson and John Garmany.